Free Republic

SCHATCHENS FIND BUSINESS BAD AND DEPLORE THE UNHAPPINESS SURE TO FOLLOW- This has been a hard year for the cupids of the ghetto, as the matrimonial agents of the Jewish quarter might be called. To the Jews he is known as the schatchen, but unless the marriage business picks up the broker is going to drop out of sight. Already he is branching out into other ways of making a living. He writes letters for the illiterate, acts as interpreter in business transactions or does odd jobs around the synagogue. Marriage brokerage used to be one of the best paying...

irtually every Rabbi started their sermon this past Shabbos with a similar theme, I am quite sure. The juxtaposition of the inauguration of President Trump with the verse from Parshat Shmos “And a new King arose” was too providential to ignore. No matter what one thinks, in this very divided country, about the new President, it is certainly an exciting time to be living, with great promise of change in the air. In the Orthodox Jewish community, of course, there is particular excitement, given that, for the first time, Orthodox Jews have such proximity to the most powerful human on...

BETHLEHEM, West Bank — A dozen Palestinian Muslim men gathered after midnight at an isolated farm house this week to indulge in a new delight. They were going to watch a soap opera about Jews. “Hush, hush. It’s starting!” someone said. The group settled down, sipped fresh lemonade, nibbled sweets, sucked on water pipes and then cranked up the volume for the opening credits of “Haret al-Yahud,” or “The Jewish Quarter.” The steamy Egyptian soap tells a Romeo and Juliet tale of a beautiful daughter of a well-to-do Jewish merchant and a dashing Muslim army commander falling in and out...

Without Our Traditions, Our Life would be as Shaky as a Fiddler on the Roof! By: Msgr. Charles PopeWhen I was a young man, a teenager really, I did the usual crazy stuff of the early ’70s: long hair, bell bottoms, wide ties, crazy plaids, shirt open at least least three buttons, and, of course, rock-n-roll.But through it all I had this love for older things. I think it had something to do with my grandmother, Nana, whom I loved with great affection. Often she lamented the loss of the old things and old ways. She missed the Latin Mass;...

When I was a young man, a teenager really, I did the usual crazy stuff of the early, 70s, long hair, bell bottoms, wide ties, crazy plaids, shirt open at least least three buttons, and of course, rock-n-roll.But, through it all I had this love for older things. I think it had something to do with my Grandmother, Nana, whom I loved with great affection. Often she lamented the loss of the old things and old ways. She missed the Latin Mass, she missed when manners were better, when people remembered how to dress well, when things were more certain,...

Television talk show host and actress Rosie O'Donnell will return to Broadway in September in a production of "Fiddler on the Roof," the show's producers said on Monday. O'Donnell will star opposite actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein in the musical running at the Minskoff Theater in Manhattan. Fierstein who is playing Tevye, a milkman, will be joined by O'Donnell as his wife Golde, according to a statement. "As a twenty year friend of Rosie's, I couldn't be happier that we will finally share a stage together," Fierstein said in the statement. A previous O'Donnell Broadway venture, "Taboo," which she produced,...